June 29, 2011

The digital landscape is a moving target. Online social networking is exploding. And the levels inside small, medium and large organizations are trying to get a handle on all the stuff going on. Those blazing a path say we should keep blazing, those beginning to realize the value of this work is a growing number and progress is happening among the money people who want proof and metrics that all the time spent has a compelling enough business reason to continue.

Erik Qualman wrote a #1 best selling book entitled Socialnomics in 2009. He also produced subsequent videos and a powerful infographic packed with actual statistics that excited the evangelists, increased the interest of the advocates and made some naysayers and decision makers a bit nervous while others began to understand the importance of this data. Erik is back with an updated version of the video.

June 28, 2011

It doesn’t matter if you work in television, radio, advertising, communications, marketing, digital or mobile; your top job is developing audience. You can use words like influence and connection, conversation and relationship but having more people consume your offering gives you a better chance on driving success through whatever metric you decide to employ.

Return on your investment may be measured by revenue or awareness but unless you are independently wealthy, you need to eventually realize results of some kind. So in the quest for advancement, most are hesitant to take chances and things get stuck.

Creating Your Experience

As you know, the word media is plural for medium yet there is plenty of evidence that some feel it is a catch-all phrase. But for the most part we consume media alone through gadgets and channels. And with technological advancements, our experience is more in our individual control every day. Our user experience can be uniquely ours.

You don’t read your Facebook newsfeed with ten other people. You aren’t sending tweets from the control room of a studio. And you are probably not devising your next blog post while mapping out storylines and an editorial calendar with your team. Creating and consumer media is a personal process. There are exceptions but we mostly read, watch, listen, write and interact alone. Our quest to reach and share with others makes the experience social.

Imagine. Create. Share.

Think about your average week. Mine consists of time online, calls, email, writing, maybe a webinar, group calls, business development, client work, proposals, team discussions, driving to appointments and research. Your week may be different but you are conducting most of that work alone through various media.

So when companies talk about gaining more market share or building a brand - which can only be done between customers - they often use averages and demographics, charts and trends and that is valuable information but more times than not our clientele consume our offering alone.

June 27, 2011

There’s no denying that Arianna Stasinopoulosis Huffington is a successful person. According to compete.com, the mega news agency CNN's website has approximately 28.5 million unique visitors a month. That is a pretty impressive number but with their worldwide footprint and huge staff it’s understandable. Well, Arianna's site The Huffington Post – which was purchased by AOL this past February for $315 Million – receives about 23 million unique monthly visitors.

The work involved in building such an online empire is immense. It took long hours and a lot of sacrifice. At 60, Huffington works hard. But anyone who is an overachiever will admit (perhaps only to themselves) there is a physical cost to all this work. Like so many before her, Huffington almost paid the ultimate price for her achievements.

In this TEDWomen talk held in Washington DC last December, Arianna Huffington outlines her big business idea that she believes can be the secret to success. [video]

June 25, 2011

When I was a kid, Mrs. Johnson always loved to have potluck dinners. The families would gather at her house with their item to add to the bounty. I was a kid, I was happy there were always hotdogs. But Mrs. Johnson would always ensure each family would know what to bring. She issued assignment orders. There was no guesswork. After some deliberation, tasks were assigned, and the potlucks went off without a hitch.

Years later I was invited to a potluck and all guests were asked to bring a food item. We ended up with 80 burgers, five Caesar salads, enough potato salad to feed a small nation and no plates. Each person had good intentions but there was no plan.

Creating Your Organization's Buffet

Digital discussions still may be in their infancy and that is not a reference to the length of time a company may have been on Facebook or thought through the reason they have a mobile app but rather a reflection of acceptance throughout the organization.

Here’s where the decision makers start to get nervous when they can no longer measure it in relation to driving business. The digital purists are defending the conversation, the advocates are pointing out the benefits of finding like minded people to connect with the offering but the people holding the wallets are wondering if all this stuff is going to pay off. After all, we can't reside in "it takes a while" land forever.

Same Agenda - Different Language

Communication can be the single biggest way for companies to improve or fail. Building a social business is not easy. Departments are necessary to chunk up the work and align strengths but the challenges reside in both knowledge levels and acceptance of the digital opportunities.

The purists say now is the time to move, the advocates remind others the past is not where the future lies while the people accountable to the money haven’t quite added it all up. There are a lot of choices and opinions. Some cost money while others start disagreements. The evolution will not be swift. It would be cool to see a day when the early adopters can appreciate the necessity of the bottom line while the ones with the wallets continue to let believers assess value.

June 23, 2011

Flowers blooming, trees full, sun shining, if you live in colder climes then you are enjoying some warmer temperatures, ah yes, it’s time to just enjoy life for a bit. For two decades I used to be the martyr who would work on through while others took time to enjoy the weather and family. I’d often get praise from the boss and little else. After missing four seasons of golf the biggest fool in the organization was easy to find. The accolades are nice, the time never returns.

Time away from the endless content and busy work is imperative. More than a few times I have seen people write about the fact their Klout score went down or they lost blog subscribers because they took a vacation. Who cares! It's not important. You and keeping your sanity is the priority.

We all need to recharge and remember what all this work is for and it’s not simply to do more work. If you have kids, there is a very real reminder that summer is here. If you work from home those reminders can affect your ability to get anything accomplished.

Business Could Slow Down Too Much

This is not just common with the self-employed, it happens in large enterprise as well. You adopt summer hours, a casual dress code and there are simply less people around because of rotating vacations. You discovered renewed interest in the other important parts of life and suddenly the workplace doesn’t seem so daunting.

The social web is a great way to keep the lines of communication open and you don’t need to be sitting at your desk to accomplish that. And perhaps this summer is a chance for you to experiment and learn how the digital world can in fact enhance your business offering. Channels and technology can allow us to continue doing business no matter where we are with others doing the same.

Perhaps while your competitors have their hands off the wheel, this is the time to gain more ground?

June 21, 2011

Lovin' Every Minute of It
A fun infographic that has been making the rounds is one that shows the multitude of things that happen online every minute. It was developed by the web design company Go-Globe and when I first saw it, like most, I was impressed. But then it reminded me how overwhelmed business owners and managers feel on a daily basis. How do you keep up? What channels do you choose? Where do you focus your efforts? How can you digest the never ending amount of content?

Some highlights of what happens on the Internet every minute along with some additional items you may experience today.

• There are almost 700,000 Google search inquiries
• Flickr receives more than 6,000 photo uploads
• You surfed that car site instead of making another sales call
• Over 70 new domains are registered
• Twitter gains 320 new members and almost a hundred thousand tweets are sent
• More than 22 million meetings ended with no definitive decisions
• In excess of 168 million emails are sent
• iPhone customers download 13,000 applications
• You read this post
• Over 350,000 minutes of voice calls are done by Skype users
• LinkedIn gains another 100 members
• You started another game of Angry Birds at your desk
• Over 25 hours of videos are uploaded onto YouTube
• 700,000 status updates, 80,000 wall posts and 500,000 comments on Facebook
• More than a hundred questions are asked on answers.com
• Scribd receives another 1,600 reads
• You checked your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles
• Over 1,200 new ads are created on Craigslist
• Pandora streams more than 13,000 hours of music to users

June 20, 2011

You run a business, you have expenses, you have revenue and you want profits. You want to see measurable growth in your overall business this fiscal.

Your time is tighter than ever, you are distracted by all of the outbound marketing choices and there doesn’t seem to be one clear cut way to go.

You know you should examine your current business development and perhaps dump some stuff and incorporate some new stuff and that’s about as far as the conversation has gone. In this case, your business is anything from a part-time interest to a publically traded multi-national in the Fortune 500.

Of course the “you” in this story is a composite of any business owner and manager because these are issues faced every day in companies small, medium and large. We all struggle with striking a balance between working in the business while trying to work on the business and ultimately find our why business.

Busy Busy

You could freshen up the website, add another Twitter stream, begin blogging, put out a direct mail piece, create a Facebook group, buy some radio advertising, develop a mobile application, slap up some billboards, create a YouTube channel and take out full page ads in the daily newspaper.

All this activity will take time, resources and cash. There will be creative meetings with your agency or internal team. You will need to decide on the content and artwork. And then there is production and upkeep. You’re in business every single day so these activities certainly can’t be haphazard.

Proof Meet Pudding

If traction isn’t realized in quick order you may be concerned it didn’t work. There hasn’t been an increase in blog readers, the radio campaign hasn’t garnered enough sales leads and all that Facebook stuff seems a waste of time. You may claim you don't need more marketing, you need more sales. Egg meets chicken.

Have a close look at you investment and effort. Are you committed to it? Are you aware of the expected results of each tactic? Or are you hoping to throw money at an eternal solution then get back to work so all those new sales leads will pour in? Traditional, digital and mobile media are no longer places to buy but rather channels to engage. We have to look at the return of our social investment.

Before we measure our return, perhaps we have to be honest and clear about our actual investment?

June 19, 2011

They say you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family but twice a year we pay tribute to the people who actually brought us into the world. Today it’s dad’s turn. And I can’t know your situation but I hope you and your dad are in a good place or if he’s no longer with us, you think of him fondly. Mom gets half the nod but thanks to my dad for making me creative, smart and inquisitive. I love you.

Thanks to Dads All Over the World

One place you may want to visit today is The Good Men Project. My friend Lisa Hickey is the force behind an idea started by Tom Matlack. There is a book, an online magazine, videos, interaction, a blog and great stuff about all kinds of good men.

And on this Father’s Day, a look at Louis Kahn through the eyes and lens of his son Nathaniel who presented this TED Talk in 2002 about his film “My Architect”. It is a documentary about his legendary father. But it is equally a film about anyone seeking to gain more understanding about their relationships.

June 17, 2011

Business owners and managers who have yet gone deep with a digital presence often worry about the time commitment, the ability to manage the content, the sheer volume of information and the return on their investment.

This week we watched in disgust as thousands of people went on a rampage in downtown Vancouver moments after the Canucks lost their second bid at a Stanley Cup. Over a hundred people have been arrested so far, clearly a tiny fraction of those who should be brought to justice, and a couple of hundred people were injured which in itself is a miracle. There have been incidents like this in the past where lives were lost.

Good Versus Bad

The actions are inexcusable. If you are upset that your team lost a hockey game, go home and smash your own house and car. But the very tools that were used to broadcast the Vancouver events to the world in an instant this week will slowly turn positive in two distinct ways.

There is video evidence of the actual people who did the damage and hurt others. It astounds me how anyone can destroy property, hurt others and happily film themselves doing it. There are thousands of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube accounts littered with the names and images for authorities to sift through but the bigger question is one I’m not sure we can answer – why did this happen and if the Canucks had won, would it have happened anyway? It’s easy to say a small group of thugs started it – time will tell – but that doesn’t excuse thousands – yes, thousands – of others joining in.

Bad Turns Good

But the other positive result is that in mere hours, hundreds of Vancouverites were on the streets cleaning up their city and tens of thousands of supporters were spreading the news through various Facebook groups. Vancouver is one of the most beautiful, clean, fun, engaging cities on earth. If you have never been, I implore you to do so. If you have been, go again and let’s not let the bad ones prove what some are suspecting is a long hill to climb to improve the city’s reputation.

The digital age gives us reasonably inexpensive tools to spread ideas quickly. The social web has opened up avenues to people who share our interests all over the world. But the events of Wednesday night in Vancouver remind us the responsibility we have with our web presence and content.

June 16, 2011

If you work in the automotive industry, we need to talk. There is no car shortage. Your manager is not out of town. You don’t have just five left on the lot. The balloons, inflatable gorilla and hot dogs for the kids are not enough of an incentive to check the deals this weekend. There is goods news. Some companies discard all that and talk about the experience and don’t need to bark about their tent sale.

Half a Billion Apps for That

We’ve seen the explosion of mobile devices in the last decade. This one’s smaller, this one can fry an egg, this one will send documents to Japan and this one is available in vermillion. We are losing the ability to make eye contact, sit quiet and do nothing. We have to check the mobile device, someone may need us.

You don't text and drive, of course. But look to the car next to you at the next stop light and see if they’re checking their mobile device because something may be urgent. Of course, after you check yours. We are available 24/7 which means if they haven’t returned the email within 48 hours they are either actually busy, the Internet is broken or they are ignoring you.

Smaller Faster Thinner

The processor on this laptop is eighteen thousand times faster than the previous one that was forty-two hundred times faster than the one before that. And we still can’t get the wi-fi to work properly in the restaurant when the client is waiting to see the first draft of the presentation.

They promised that their digital service was lightning fast which lets you update your Facebook status and send a tweet in an instant. Well, except when they’re doing work on the lines which is every second month plus they’re getting a larger number of customers on the system please hold the line sir, can I get your account number and fourteen digit security code.

Please Fasten Your Seat Belt

Flights are delayed because it’s Monday and this exact number of passengers – give or take a few hundred – fly out of La Guardia every week so you can understand why the airlines haven’t accommodated for this usual occurrence. They are just reminding passengers for the 568th time in the last hour to not leave bags unattended. And by the time you snake your way through five security checks. make your way to 11B, the pilot announces the plane is 14th in line for take-off.

To say the world is a busier place today than it was even few years ago in some ways may be a safe assessment but are getting any more done? The social web has created discussions and opinions, naysayers and evangelists, pontificators and spammers. And if you own a business you may be more confused than ever. You want ROI.

How do you balance your impatience for revenue with their impatience quick service?

June 14, 2011

Last week, my colleague Mark Schaefer was kind to ask several of his community members to guest on his blog while he was on vacation. Mark knows now to build a community and knew darn well that each of us who guested would end up forming new relationships with each other.

There is increasing discussion these days about developing a “social business.” The vital word to remember in this name is business — real work tied to a bottom line.

The social business doesn’t start or end in the digital space but rather in the human universe. It includes the creation of a true collaborative, two-way exchange that embraces internal and external customer connection and service.

Labels such as social media, social networking, and social marketing are often misused. Social media are a collection of channels. Social networking is interaction between people through myriad digital and human channels. And social marketing embraces many channels to achieve social good. Channels are simply options.

So How Can You Make Your Company Social?

First it requires superior products or services. Creating an environment where it’s fun to work that has nothing to offer clients is a not a business. We can get distracted by the temptations of the social web and allow emotion to rule the day when we use words such as media and social. But without business, it’s a hobby shrouded in theory.

Our customers don’t care how many blog subscribers we have or who visits our YouTube channel. They may ‘like’ our Facebook group but that does not constitute a relationship, yet. They bought our stuff and they expect it to do what we said it would do. So we need an actual business that has customers or the potential of customers before we can build a social business.

Communications and marketing in a social business are not necessarily departments; they are tied to every function everyone does every day. Teamwork in a social business does not consist of butt covering, “good enough,” or that isn’t my job declarations. It embraces an understanding of the strengths of each and every person and how they complement the rest of the team. Building a social business is hard work but can be the single most important tactic you can employ to increase profits.

People Buy Into People

The construction of a social business requires the realization that human beings build the bottom line, not websites or slick messaging. It is also an environment where stakeholders understand we are all suppliers and we are all customers. We all live on both sides of the counter.

Have you ever been to a restaurant where the person serving you seems to have the best job in the world? Think about the last time you met a convenience store clerk who smiled, made eye contact and meant it when they wished you a good day. The little things are often the biggest things that can make your company social.

Different Things Different Results

It begins with the desire to look they do business inside and outside of their organization. It means they may feel uncomfortable for a while but they’ll be in good hands because the goal is to improve, not point fingers or increase workload simply to keep busy.

The clear focus is to create an environment where both stakeholders and customers want to be great and that is how sustained growth is achieved. Building a social business goes well beyond channels and websites.

June 12, 2011

I found a document a couple of years ago and mentioned it here. You may not have seen the post and I think it's imperative that you do. This could be the earliest known document on business strategy.

The authors, date and origin cannot be verified but the information is just as useful today as when it was first penned. The work discusses leadership types and perhaps pointing to its age and origin, the titles are in Latin.

Scaredycate Closedoorius

This is the manager who has an “open door policy” when no one is actually in her office. Once the meeting begins, doors are sealed. Anything discussed in meetings are filtered through the perception of the boss to then be translated to staff, customers or clients as her ideas.

Likedbyallorus Needium

Great guy, super guy, always smiling, always has time for you. He deals with no actual crises. When the bullets fly, he is unfortunately very busy with other issues. As long as things are rosy and fun it’s a great place to work but conflict or client issues are brushed neatly under the finely appointed corporate non-answer area rug.

Unwantiate Inputarium

The office is adorned with a bright four color bound document which outlines the company’s story, plans and mantra. Embossed on the front is the phrase “Our People Are Our Strongest Asset”. Through the threshold of the lobby is where that mantra dies a rapid painful death to make room for Unwantiate Inputarium’s benevolent dictatorship.

Lackus Spinearia

Much like Pompom Nobadnoos, this type of leader sits in his corner office praising people when things are good but is unable to make one concrete decision of any substance that will actually move the company forward. Some are amazed a human can stand upright with so little support in one's back. He thinks he’s pulling it off and fooling no one but the big boss, Vacatium Spinearia.

The best way to build a company is through strong respected and fair leadership, solid strategy and an atmosphere of co-creation but not everyone shares that view.

June 10, 2011

It is fascinating to read the blogosphere and the Twitter stream. Both are crammed with endless opinions and insight, useless links and life changing information. As the cliché goes, we all have an opinion and that doesn’t mean we’re right, we just have one. Many have been vocal about our collective impatience with taking chances. We push companies to get deeper into the social web, embrace digital business intelligence and try stuff but we are often quick to scream #fail the moment there is a misstep.

It is imperative to have a plan, a policy and some guidelines when you are navigating the online world but these don’t have to be encyclopedias filled with legalize no one understands. It is critical to remind stakeholders that if they reference the company on any of their profiles, they represent the company. But it doesn't have to be a restrictive environment that stifles creative thought.

Not a Digital Issue

No matter what spaces you interact, business decorum shouldn't be loosened but you can still be personable. Find your voice, find your company's voice but don't be irresponsible. There are countless examples where people have shot from the hip in a moment of emotion and that causes damage.

Any one of us two billion people online has a choice to share our voice. But what if we chose to find our silence for a while?

Listening is Frowned Upon

Some will claim that’s lurking and we should let others know we’re in the channel. With more than 600 million Twitter search inquiries and half a billion signing onto Facebook daily along the multitude of monitoring and analytics options, we can’t be tweeting all the time. We need to find time to invest in the immense power of data mining now at our keyboards.

And if we are researching, reading, listening, watching, consuming, does that mean we aren’t interacting with each other? If we want others to pay more attention to what we want to share, we need to find equal time to take in what others are sharing.

Some say the two sides to a conversation are talking and waiting to talk. Do you spend time in digital silence?

June 9, 2011

When I first started publishing online, I was torn if I started reading someone’s regular content and they slipped in a guest writer. I had invested in them, not someone else. My view has changed and I know most would only let a colleague guest post for them if there was trust and respect.

I am thrilled that today (June 9th) is my guest appearance on the {grow} blog. Creator Mark Schaefer asked nine of us to fill in while he took his wife on a long overdue and well needed vacation.

You should have Mark’s blog in your rss reader and read it daily. I’d love your thoughts on my post today.

June 8, 2011

As recently as 4-5 years ago, many of us who do business presentations used Starbucks as an aspirational brand. It was the trading up transaction. You would do without something to get that $5 latte and millions of people go into their 17,000 stores every day and do just that. Then the economy took a kicking and suddenly Starbucks was viewed – by some – as too expensive or a frivolous luxury we couldn’t afford.

So instead of assuming what people were doing or thinking, the company thought it would be wise to actually find out. Matthew Guiste is the Director of Global Social Media at Starbucks. In this video presentation, he talks about how they engage millions of fans through Twitter, FourSquare, YouTube, Facebook and various other channels.

Your business may not be as big as Starbucks but this could give you ideas for engaging with your customers.

June 7, 2011

• Focus on your strengths
• Know what you know
• Don't get distracted by naysayers
• Take digital time off
• Be known for something
• Surround yourself with smart people
• Do one thing really well
• Have a flexible strategy
• Refine your offer
• Be clear on your beliefs
• Walk away at least once a day
• Commit to it
• Believe in yourself
• Read and seek daily knowledge
• Build a mastermind group
• Work smarter
• Know what you don't know
• Do great stuff
• Stop comparing yourself to others

June 5, 2011

With few exceptions, no one ever becomes wildly successful without some sort of - albeit flexible - business plan. You need to set realistic actionable objectives or you will get lost in tactics. Crashing and burning are often the next step waiting for you.

I've always prescribed to the "strategy before tactics" mantra. You need to set 2-3 objectives for the next year and then build out necessary activities to ensure they are accomplished. Simon Sinek changed that when he reminds us that we need to know why we're doing any of it in the first place.

A Plan is Not Enough

Business plans don't have to be verbose literary masterpieces which no one will read, never mind execute. They should be clear and the content should point to what the company actually wants to carry out. But like mission statements, they are often created with the best of intentions in a controlled environment known as a boardroom.

Business objectives should include realistic market perspective, company financial realities and unbiased summation of stakeholder talent. Anyone can say "make more money this year" but can you really pull it off when you take into consideration your products or services, competitive situations and appropriate cash flow.

How can you ensure your business plan doesn't go sideways as soon as the reality of life hits it in the face?

June 3, 2011

There is a ton of content and discussion about the social consumer. She has a tablet and a smartphone. He buys stuff online with one thumb tied behind his back. She actually knows all of her 247 Facebook friends. And if you stopped and asked him how he navigates the digital landscape, he might reply with something insightful like, “I don’t think about it”. And companies desperately want her.

He/she is not one person yet far too many companies continue to attempt the homogenized approach to outbound marketing. We need to pay closer attention to our own behaviour when designing messages that we want to use to attract customers.

They is us and We is them

Discussions began a decade ago when the advertising and marketing world began to realize that their slick messaging wasn’t passing the lips and down the throat as easily to a certain segment of the population. This is no longer a group that can be ignored.

The social consumer was often dismissed as a group of tech savvy kids. That is simply not true and it is dangerous thinking. The social consumer is my 74 year old dad and my 25 year old niece. This is a behavioral conversation. We reside on both sides of the counter. I provide you with products and services and you do the same for me. The counter may be a website, smartphone app, blog, tweet, wiki, Facebook wall entry or what some call "stuff we do in real life".

Four out of five dentists recommend

After years of conducting mind numbing focus groups, callout research and group discussions, I can safely say we lie, or perhaps better stated, we stretch the truth when asked our opinion. We mean to be truthful but often have trouble remembering what we had for lunch. So when asked how many servings of vegetables participants have in an average week, they may respond with a slightly higher number than reality while lowering the number if the inquiry is about servings of alcohol.

Eckhart Tolle says the past is our impression of what may have happened. The social consumer is too busy creating their own experience to count beers and broccoli.

Survey says

We can now capture information from stuff that is actually happening versus our collective recall as with the focus group strategy. Nothing is 100% accurate but placing your hands over your ears and eyes and hoping it will go away is unwise strategy. A decade ago you may have been able to do that, it is not a theory anymore. We are all becoming the social consumer whether you believe it or not.

There are free tools and proprietary solutions such as analytics and digital audits that can help manage the data. The ideal situation is a combination of both. Excuses like "we don't have time" or "we don't see the value" are no longer good enough.

June 1, 2011

"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."John Lennon

We work thousands of hours each year. Life gets busy. There are deadlines and meetings, commitments and activities. Someday becomes part of our daily routine. We plan for the future, we look forward to a time when we'll have more time or money.

Then suddenly another decade is gone. And no matter how much time or money we spend, we cannot change the past. That is what is going on in each of us, in each of the people in our organization, in each of our clients. That is what is happening with everyone you meet on Twitter, in the grocery store, at that business function, in your company. They are your family members and customers. None of us escapes it.